‘The Last Jedi’: Mark Hamill’s Second Role and Tom Hardy’s Cut Cameo Revealed

If, for some non-sensical reason, you have yet to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi, then you should probably close this window ASAP because there are some POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD. If you are an intellectual human who has already seen Rian Johnson’s sequel (more than once, no doubt), then feel free to read on for the low-down on a couple of cameos — including that heavily-rumored Tom Hardy appearance, which was (sadly) cut from the film.

Hardy, along with Princes William and Harry, was long-rumored to be playing a Stormtrooper in The Last Jedi — not unlike Daniel Craig’s cameo in The Force Awakens. Yesterday, Hardy shared a photo of himself in Stormtrooper gear, posing with a bunch of co-stars whose faces were covered with little emoji skulls. The actor took the pic down shortly after, but not before a fan account could snag a copy:

It seems like Hardy’s cameo would have been during the scene where Finn and Rose disguise themselves as Imperial officers to disable the hyperspace tracker. /Film confirmed as much, noting that this might have also been where Princes William and Harry had their cameos — which might account for Hardy covering the faces in his pic:

A group of stormtroopers get in the elevator and our heroes are nervous they are going to get caught. One of the stormtroopers slowly turns to Finn and gives him a look. Finn turns around in his Imperial officer uniform and asks him what his problem is. The stormtrooper, played by Hardy with a southern accent, says “I know who you are…. FN 2187! Damn boy, I never took you for officer material!” The tension is cut by the reveal that the two grew up together, but the troopers are somehow unaware of FN’s treason. While Finn’s act of desertion is a legend in the Resistance, maybe the First Order hid that information from their army so others might not get the same idea. (This scene could be where Prince William and Prince Harry shot their cameos as stormtroopers, but we were unable to confirm.)

While Hardy’s cameo didn’t make it into the final cut of The Last Jedi (it might show up on the Blu-ray), there were plenty more that did: Justin Theroux as the master hacker, Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the (British) voice of an alien on Canto Bight, Rogue Onedirector Gareth Edwards as a Resistance soldier (in the trenches on the salt planet), and Edgar Wright and his brother Oscar as Crait Resistance fighters. Even Carrie Fisher’s dog Gary had a cameo as an alien on Canto Bight.

But there was one more cameo you probably missed during that Canto Bight casino scene: Mark Hamill. That little drunken leprechaun-like alien who can’t stop shoving coins into BB-8 was actually played by Hamill, according to VFX supervisor Ben Morris. Speaking with Nerdist, Morris explained that Hamill really wanted to give mo-cap a try, so Johnson created a second role just for him:

We actually built the gigantic wire frame BB-8 that was a little to the right side so that Mark was the same height as the toad dude. So, we’ve got this enormous BB-8, like the Christmas bauble, that’s made out of wire. I think Mark had a great time. And we leave that as the basis for his performance ideas for the character.

The character’s name is Dobbu Scay, and creature shop head Neal Scanlan says that while Hamill played the mo-cap version, two other familiar names helped with the scale performance: Warwick Davis and Jimmy Vee.

Hopefully the creation of Dobbu Scay will be another feature included on the eventual Blu-ray. Until then, maybe you can use this new knowledge to impress your friends when you go see The Last Jedi in theaters for, what, the third or fourth time this week?